


Dusty Boxes

by yastaghr



Series: Scribbling is its own Language - Oneshots [14]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Medical Experimentation, Medical Trauma, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), POV Multiple, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you."
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 00:25:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16357082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yastaghr/pseuds/yastaghr
Summary: Frisk and their friends help Alphys dig through some old boxes at the lab.(Not a good summary, sorry)





	Dusty Boxes

Alphys stared at the boxes and boxes of old reports and notebooks. The dust spinning in the air was sickening - whether it was the remains of the dead or the decayed paper of centuries of scientific progress, the horror was the same. How had she never noticed this door before?

 

All of this data - what if it held the answers she needed to stabilize the Amalgamates? What if it contained records of someone else doing the exact same experiment? How stupid would that be, hurting so many monsters and their families when just reading one of these files would have told her what to expect?

 

A small hand tugged at her sleeve, pulling her out of it. Frisk looked up at her through their brand new glasses, beautiful red eyes filled with concern.

 

“I’m okay...thanks, F-f-frisk,” Alphys looked around the room again, this time taking in the massive heap of collapsed boxes shoved in a corner, the flickering fluorescent lights, the receding walls. Sorting through this chaotic excuse for a filing system would take ages.

 

“Actually...do you, um, think we could c-c-call Undyne? There’s a l-l-lot of boxes.”

 

Frisk shot her a thumbs up, then signed out a question. Alphys’ lips moved as she tried to work it out. Some of Frisk’s symbols were very different from Monster Hands. Everyone was learning to translate, but sometimes it was tough.

 

“you w-w-want to call the...bone...broth- oh. Oh! Yes, they’ll be, um, helpful? Papyrus is very o-o-organized and Sans...yeah. That’s a really g-g-good idea, Frisk!”

 

The human smiled at her. They pulled their phone out of their pocket and started fiddling.. As they worked, Alphys wandered further into the ancient store room. She started mapping, in her mind at least, the relative age of various files. Some of the writing looked absolutely archaic! There didn’t seem to be much of a chronological ordering. Decaying cardboard leaned against colorful plastic. Maybe it was by subject?

 

Alphys’ thoughts trailed away as she paced through the caked dust, her friend's boisterous voices crackling through the cell’s speakers and disturbing the long quiet of the room.

 

* * *

 

Papyrus surveyed the neat columns of stacked paperwork in the hall before him. With his expert advice the unorganised files were being transformed into a neat chronology! Of course, his brother’s suggestion of sorting by handwriting and quantity of dust was of _some_ help. Without the direction of the Great Papyrus, however, they would never have gotten this far!

 

“PAPYRUS! This one’s full of loopy dotted stuff. We got a place for that?”

 

He thrust his sternum proudly towards his friend, “INDEED! LOOPY DOTS ARE IN AISLE 3, ROW J!”

 

Thanks!” Undyne set off into the piles, “By the way, have you seen your brother lately? Alphys saw him disappear into the unlit mountains almost an hour ago and hasn’t seen him since.”

 

Papyrus patted his mandible thoughtfully, “NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, NO! MY LAZY BROTHER HAS PROBABLY FALLEN ASLEEP AGAIN. I SHALL GO FETCH HIM IMMEDIATELY!”

 

Undye looked at him oddly, “You do realise he can’t help falling asleep like that? Punk’s got some kind of a medical thing. Frisk told me.”

 

Papyrus smiled brightly, “I KNOW! HE’S ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THAT, BUT I KNOW HE CAN DO BETTER! AT THE VERY LEAST HE COULD FALL ASLEEP WHERE I CAN SEE HIM. THEN I CAN GIVE HIM A BLANKET SO HE DOESN’T GET COLD!”

 

His best friend tilted her head, “I thought you said skeletons couldn’t get cold.”

 

“WE CAN’T! BUT THAT’S WHAT ALL THE MOVIES SAY YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO.”

 

She grinned, “Gotcha. So what are you waiting around here for? GO FIND THAT LAZY BROTHER AND WRAP HIM IN THE WARMEST BLANKET YOU CAN FIND!”

 

Papyrus saluted, “YES UNDYNE!”

 

He dove through the doorway into the cavern of paperwork, clearing Frisk’s approaching head by only a few inches.

 

* * *

 

When Papyrus found Sans he was sitting in a circle of scribbled paperwork. Three empty boxes were stacked behind him. One of their pet blasters hovered next to him, a pink lantern with cat ears on it dangling from its jaws.

 

“SANS WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ALPHYS SPECIFICALLY TOLD US TO LEAVE THE PAPERWORK IN THE BOXES UNTIL EVERYTHING HAD BEEN SORTED!”

 

His brother jumped, dropping a set of grainy images messily around him.

 

“wha- uh, hey bro. i know, just...” his skull rotated to avoid Papyrus’ gaze, “it’s my file, bro. never got to read it fully.”

 

Papyrus collapsed his knees into a messy tailor’s seat just beyond the ring of documents.

 

“OH,” his voice was plastic and crispy black slacks, “ANYTHING INTERESTING?”

 

Sans shrugged, “not really. no notes yet, just the figures. 20 mg of dried patience here, tibia cracked after 3.82 centimeters of separation there. ‘bout what you’d expect, really.”

 

Papyrus fiddled with his left glove, “I’M SORRY.”

 

Sans patted his patella awkwardly, “hey, what’d i say about apologizing for him? s’not your fault.”

 

Papyrus’ roving sockets stalled on one of the clearer pictures. A much smaller Sans stared blankly at the camera with one working eye. The other was stuffed with red-stained gauze and had fresh cracks around the edges. His jaw was wired to his skull in three places, and anyone who knew how skeletons healed could see the wires were already half-covered in new bone.

 

“I SHOULD HAVE NOTICED SOONER. HE WAS ALWAYS SO COLD, AND HE NEVER ANSWERED MY QUESTIONS. HE-”

 

Fragile, unevenly bleached arms wrapped around him.

 

“naw, bro,” Sans’ voice was a cracked whisper vibrating into his collarbone, “you’re perfect. suspicion isn’t in your nature - how could i blame you for thinking your dad was perfect? you saved me, you taught me how to eat and talk and trust other monsters. i’d never have survived without as cool a guy as you taking care of me. i love you so much bro, you’ve got no idea.”

 

Papyrus wailed into his brother’s hoodie, “BUT HE HURT YOU SO MUCH!”

 

“yeah. but you taught me how to love. besides, if frisk can forgive us for trying to take their soul to break the barrier, i can forgive you for taking so long to open that door. maybe i can even forgive him - after all, he didn’t realise his experiment had developed a soul.”

 

Papyrus gave in and let the tears fall. His little brother just hugged him, scarred frame radiating so much love and forgiveness that it was a wonder the humans on the other side of the world couldn’t feel it.

 

* * *

 

Alphys was snout deep in one of the dusty files when Frisk tapped her on the shoulder. She dropped the file, papers flying everywhere, and sneezed. A puff of dust disturbed the thick air.

 

“Sorry, sorry,” she turned to the young human, “Did you, um, want something?”

 

Frisk signed. Alphys’ lips moved as she worked it out.

 

“You found a file that has weird writing in it?” Frisk nodded, “What kind of writing?”

 

Frisk signed that the script looked like weird symbols.

 

“Oh. Okay. Do you want m-m-me to take a look?”

 

Frisk nodded again. Alphys got to her feet, casting a forlorn look at the scattered papers. Before she could open her mouth to ask, Frisk had already bent down to pick them up. Alphys joined them. They soon had the papers back in order and tucked safely away in the file. This accomplished, they set out.

 

* * *

 

“Alright, what am I looking at?”

 

Papyrus wrung his gloves under the pressure of Undyne’s one eye. Sans had only made him promise not to _tell_ anyone about things, right? So obviously it was okay to bring the former Captain of the Royal Guard into the stacks of paper and point her at the right box. Obviously. His gut was just going to have to sit there and stop complaining.

 

Anyway, he hadn’t said _anything_ to Undyne. He’d just...let her follow him. That was it. It wasn’t his fault if Undyne chose to follow him, was it?

 

Suddenly she snorted, “Snrk. Pap, really? You made me a puzzle again?”

 

Well no, he hadn’t, but that was fine. If Undyne thought this was a puzzle, he could play along. Sans always encouraged him to enjoy his puzzles. Papyrus suspected it had something to do with all of the tests they’d had Sans do back then. Some part of him still thought that doing good on tests was important, and that it meant safety. Making Papyrus safe was very important to him, and that was rather touching…

 

Or it could just be that Sans wanted him to be happy. Puzzles made him happy. Therefore Sans liked it when he did puzzles _because_ they made him happy.

 

Something like that, anyway. No matter what, Sans would be happy that he was doing a puzzle. Therefore he could let Undyne think this was a puzzle. In fact, it was, in a way. Just not a puzzle with a very happy solution.

 

One yellow eye surveyed the area, “Okay. I see...boxes. Lots of boxes. Am I supposed to move them?”

 

Papyrus shook his head. She gave him a look.

 

“Can’t you just tell me? This is STUPID!”

 

Papyrus shook his head. If he told her he’d be breaking the promise to Sans.

 

“FINE! OKAY!” Her voice dropped in volume to something more normal, “Is the puzzle in a box?”

 

He nodded.

 

“Which one?”

 

He scuffed his boot pointedly. She stared at him. He scuffed it again, louder this time. She looked down.

 

“Oh.”

 

She turned around and stomped over to the right pile of boxes.

 

“These?”

 

He nodded. She snatched up the top box and plopped it on the ground. He winced as she tore it open with about 250,000% more force than necessary. The box disintegrated under the strain, spraying photos, folders, and binders all over the floor.

 

She looked at him guiltily, “Sorry, Pap. I ruined it, didn’t I?”

 

He shook his head. No, as much as it pained him to see that amount of unnecessary mess, it really didn’t matter whether or not the box survived. He doubted it would have done so after she saw the reports, anyway.

 

Her brows furrowed, and she looked back down at the mess. Then she groaned.

 

“A _reading_ puzzle? Ugh, I hate those.”

 

Papyrus couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye. He heard the thud as she dropped to the ground, then paper rustled.

 

Silence filled the dusty cavern of dead paper as Undyne read. The flipping of pages was the only interruption. That and the grumbling of an annoyed fish monster, but that hardly registered. The sound followed Undyne to a lot of places - he wasn’t even sure she was always moving her mouth to make it. It could just be background noise, like the music Frisk had signed to them about.

 

A longer than usual period of silence drew his attention. Papyrus turned.

 

Undyne was rereading the same page over and over again. Her hands were trembling, her arms tense with barely restrained fury. She reread it again. It wasn’t changing. Not even the former Captain of the Royal Guard could wish this away.

 

“Papyrus.”

 

Her voice was low and deadly.

 

“Please tell me this is a really bad joke.”

 

He shook his head. Her voice went on, wheedling.

 

“A prank? Did your brother put you up to this?”

 

He shook his head.

 

“Please don’t tell me this really happened.”

 

Papyrus nodded with a decisive finality drenched in grief.

 

Her head turned back to the sheet. She read it again, slower now. Then her fists clenched and it tore in two.

 

Her voice was calm, in an odd sort of way. Not happy. It was just calm. For Undyne, that was a lot more terrifying that spears.

 

“You know, it’s weird. I don’t want to believe this, and yet...there’s a lot of stuff that fits.”

 

She rolled her shoulders, loosening every muscle in such a way that she would be ready to fight. He knew that move well.

 

“Where are the freaks?”

 

He shrugged.

 

“You don’t know?”

 

He nodded.

 

“AND YOU’RE OKAY WITH THIS?!!!”

 

Papyrus faced her fully. She gulped.

 

“Sorry. I know you...I just...HOW THE HECK CAN YOU FEEL SAFE, NOT KNOWING WHERE THEY ARE?!! HOW CAN SANS?!!”

 

“how can i what?”

 

Both Undyne and Papyrus managed to flinch and spin at exactly the same time in exactly the same movement. Sans had peered around the edge of the boxes, a stack of binders in his arms. He looked between their guilty faces and the broken box.

 

“oh.”

 

Undyne clearly wasn’t as prepared to handle the blank expression as Papyrus was. She crumpled away, gulping. He just walked, slowly, over to his brother and took the box. Sans’ arms didn’t move. None of him did.

 

Undyne blurted out, “HE DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING! I WAS JUST-” Her voice dropped into a whisper as Sans’ eye lights returned, “I was just following him. I thought it was a puzzle he made me.”

 

Sans arms slowly lowered to his sides. He was still tense as a wire and NOT LOOKING at Papyrus. Papyrus tried to ignore the little bubble of unhappiness that was forminging in his SOUL. Sans didn’t know it, but this would help, he was sure of it.

 

Undyne muttered a curse, barely audible under her breath, and then said, “Sorry.”

 

The look in her eye and the face Sans turned on her made Papyrus glad. She wanted to help Sans, just like he’d thought. And while he didn’t believe it entirely, Sans actually looked as if he might accept that she would try.

 

It was nice to know he’d been right.

 

* * *

 

Alphys tried to allay her guilt by saying that it wasn’t really spying. They were in here to sort through the mess, after all, and just because some of the papers were in the same box didn’t mean they _belonged_ there. A part of her brain objected that that step was supposed to come _later_. She hastily buried that thought.

 

Anyway, Frisk had _asked_ her to read this file, so stopping now would be rude. It was dry stuff, just experiment notes on well-known substances. Albeit rather large amounts of said substances, but still.

 

The next section made her pause. It mentioned DT, and that was her specialty after all, but...but the way the author talked about it made it sound, if not commonplace, then at least familiar to the scientifically inclined. That couldn’t be right - it had taken her ages to identify the compound. It couldn’t be common...could it?

 

She read on, appalled at the tremendous quantity of DT that seemed to have been wasted on a fruitless experiment. The author only seemed to have been testing how much physical DT it took to form a stable mass. Why anyone would be interested in that-

 

The next paragraph stopped her dead. The author described a surgical procedure in which said mass was implanted into a living socket.

 

“Wha- who w-w-would...why…”

 

Her voice trailed off. The file referenced the subject as C0-M1-C5-ANS. Something about that serial number was familiar to her, but what-

 

“whatcha doin there, alph.”

 

She started, flinging the file into the air. Once more papers scattered around the dusty floor. A skeletal hand picked them up. It was attached to a dark-socketed skull.

 

“huh. interesting reading material. where’d you find this?”

 

Alphys tried to speak but could only squeak. Annoyed, she made the sign monsters had universally accepted as meaning ‘FRISK’.

 

“ah. shoulda expected that. our little human loves to stick their nose where it doesn’t belong.”

 

The skeleton bent down and started slowly gathering papers. It looked as though he was lingering over each and every one.

 

“and i suppose it’s too much to believe that you didn’t read these.” She nodded her head glumly. Sans sighed and asked, “which one had you got to?”

 

“I...I w-w-was...DT. In a mass. And they w-w-were, um, surgeryintosomeone’seyesocket. Yeah.”

 

Alphys couldn’t make out Sans’ expression as he demanded, “what did you think of it?”

 

Her jaw gaped. What kind of a question was that?

 

“It’s horrible? Not j-j-just the surgery, I mean, the science is b-b-bad. DT is dangerous. Why would anyone t-t-try to make a ball of it? Well, I did, but not that big! It’s just a w-w-waste. And there’s NO WAY I’d try to imp-p-plant it in someone. Even if they, um, consented? And I d-d-don’t think th-”

 

“they didn’t,” He interrupted her, “no, they _never_ asked. they didn’t think i was a mons-fudge.”

 

She’d have to buff the snout scales above her mouth tonight. Her claws were leaving scratches all over them. Her knees felt weak, too.

 

“Th-th-they di- di-”

 

“hey, alph, easy! breathe with me. come on, iiiiiiiiin. ouuuuuut. alphys, listen to me, alph. please. iiiiiiin. ouuuuut. iiiiiiiiiiin.  ouuuuuut. iiii-oh. your hugging me. okay. hi alph.”

 

She wailed, “SAAANSSS!”

 

“yeah, alph?”

 

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

 

She felt him try to shrug. He calmly answered, “didn’t think it was that important. i don’t have a whole lot of memories from back then. when pap found me, well, i wasn’t really sans before that. i was just a bunch of pain and confusion.  and i didn’t really know you that well until recently,” he got a glimpse of her face and rushed, “it’s not anything wrong you did, or because you are a scientist or anything. just...i don’t like talking about it. only paps knew, before today.”

 

Alphys blotted off her tears in his hoodie. Then “D-d-did you ever, um, talk with anyone else?”

 

He shook his head, “no. just pap. he’s so cool, you know? he got me out of that place and took me in. he taught me everything. how to talk, how to eat real food, how to walk comfortably, how to read. the first book i ever read aloud to him was fluffy bunny. he had some physics textbooks that i’ve memorised. maybe i can go to college once we’re settled up on the surface.”

 

She smiled weakly, “That would be n-n-nice. We could, um, go to classes togeth-th-ther? I’m such a mess. Undyne wants to study human history. The _real_ history. ‘Cause I lied to her. About anime.”

 

“hey, don’t beat yourself up,” he tried to comfort her,  “people make stupid decisions, and once you’ve made a choice it’s hard to change your mind. you owned up to it. she forgave you. that’s enough.”

 

“Why do you alw-w-ways come up with stuff like that? After everything you’ve been through?” She asked.

 

Sans shrugged, “pap read a lot of books. psychology stuff. maybe you can help me convince him to go for a degree?”

 

She nodded, quick little motions that had her head spinning - or maybe that was the shock. Probably the shock. It was definitely the shock that made her ask, “Um...which eye?”

 

He blinked at her, clearly trying to remember what she meant. Then his face grew a little bit sadder as he lifted his hand and tapped under his right eye. He said, “this one. i can’t see out of it at all now. the mass didn’t do anything except make me bleed when i get hurt. i guess i can ask frisk if there are any tricks to getting it to stop. it doesn’t want to coagulate, so i keep bleeding for days. it sucks.”

 

“I have, um, I mean, I m-m-might know a few tricks. Bratty has hemophilia, which means her blood doesn’t c-c-clot either. I used to help her with her bandages. I could, um...show you?”

 

He nodded, “that would be nice.”

 

* * *

 

Frisk hadn’t meant to start a landslide. They’d been trying to get one of the boxes that was just a little bit too high up for them to reach. They couldn’t see the boxes on top of it. When they’d finally gotten it loose, the entire pile shifted. It collapsed on top of them. There wasn’t a whole lot of it, but unfortunately, it was paper. Paper was heavy. Not heavy enough to hurt them, but heavy enough to pin them down. Now they’d have to wait for someone to come rescue them.

 

“hey, human. i don’t have to ask if you got the _memo_ , do i?”

 

Frisk turned their head. Sans was standing a few feet away and grinning at them. They stuck their tongue out at him. It was the only reasonable response.

 

He chuckled and said, “hey. why don’t i lend you a hand? i’m pretty sure pap wouldn’t like having a pancake for a friend.”

 

Frisk nodded as best they could. He came over. The pile around them lit up blue while his left eye turned blue and yellow. Frisk felt the heap lift off of them. They wriggled out from underneath. Sans let the pile sag back onto the ground. Frisk jumped up and hugged him.

 

Sans hugged them back, saying, “heh. don’t let that _paperwork_ bog you down, kid.”

 

They stepped back and signed their thanks.

 

He said, “don’t mention it. hey, while your here, can i ask you something?”

 

They knocked on the air twice.

 

He closed his eyes and said, “alphys showed me something. she said you’d found it. what i want to know is this,” Sans opened his eyes. The sockets were dark. Frisk shivered. He continued, “ **what were you doing with my file?** ”

 

Frisk gulped and signed quickly. They’d been trying to find Papyrus and Undyne to ask where to put a box when they’d seen Undyne tear apart a box with her bare hands. The files had scattered everywhere, and one had gotten forgotten in the cleanup. They’d taken it and seen the weird writing. They’d been curious. They asked Alphys to look at it. They were sorry if they’d done something bad.

 

Sans sighed. His sockets closed. When they opened, his eye lights were back. He said, “it’s okay, kid. i’m not mad. i’m just...a lot has happened today,” he breathed in deeply, then asked, “do you still want to know what’s inside it?”

 

Frisk nodded.

 

“okay,” he said, “it’s not exactly kid friendly, but i can summarize. some very bad scientists took one of the dead humans and made a little skeleton. they did it so they could run some painful experiments. but somewhere along the way the skeleton developed a soul. one of the bad scientists had a real son. he found the hurt skele. he took the skele home and taught him how to be a monster. the bad scientists went away, and the two skeletons were happy together.”

 

Frisk’s eyes watered. That was horrible! Their imagination was filling the gaps in with really, really bad things. And Sans had lived through that? They jumped back over and hugged him tight. If they had their way, they’d never let go.

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on my Tumblr:  
> yastaghr.tumblr.com


End file.
